As the deleterious health effects of cigarette smoking have become universally recognized and accepted, a need has developed for a means to enable a smoker to wean himself or herself from cigarettes. Simply stopping smoking requires more will power than is often available, and other means by which smokers gradually decrease their consumption of cigarettes have generally not met with significant success.
A cigarette holder is known which is provided with a set of filters of graduated porosity and set up so that the less porous filters admit more outside air through lateral vents in the holder. A would-be nonsmoker periodically changes the filter, switching it for one that passes less smoke and admits more air until theoretically he or she is smoking nothing but air. Although this arrangement does give the oral gratification of smoking, the taste is often so inferior that the procedure rarely is successfully followed to completion.